PRSSA at SIUC

By John Schumacher

Public relations professionals are called many names. A few of them are positive. On the other hand, a few of them do not portray our profession in the best light. But one name that is fundamental to our success is “storyteller.” People listen to stories. They can relate to stories. A PR professional that cannot effectively tell stories is probably not a very successful one.

Journalist Soledad O’Brien spoke at the 2011 PRSA International Conference in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, Oct. 16. She explained to her audience, “everyone has a story to tell and it usually flies under the radar.” The key is to find a relative story and deliver it to the appropriate audience.

One of O’Brien’s most talked about (and tweeted about) points was about knowing the difference between stats and stories.  “’One out of five kids is in poverty.’ That’s not a story; it’s a stat.” O’Brien said that the idea is to turn tha tstatistic into a story. Turning stats into stories is something that O’Brien has done very effectively with her “In America” specials on CNN. She began with the concept of “Black in America” and has since branched out to concepts like “Latino in America.”

In a public relations career, the “stats to stories” conceptis something that should always be kept in mind. For example, one can talk about the positive practices of a fair-trade coffee company by holding a video interview with a family of coffee bean growers. That would be a story and would give the consumer a connection with the brand on a deeper level than simply slapping a fair-trade sticker on their package. To connect with the audience, the PR professional must spark their interest. This can be done using the simple art of storytelling.